Good morning… What can I get for you?
Well as promised I’m gonna share some insight I had as the manager at my 5th store with Starbucks. Now, this is the same store where we had the Tully’s competition just to put this in perspective.
My first day at the store in this story was to say the least, a manager’s nightmare. Folks out of dress code, 8 out of 10 show up late for their shifts (a few as little as 10 minutes and a couple as much as an hour). Drink standards were clearly out of whack, customer service was hit and miss, cash handling was off, the store was dirty and had filth in every corner, we had a pest problem, inventories were way off… the list goes on…
So where to start?
Scheduling:
Well, that first day (and week really)… I just took it all in. The schedule for the next week was left for me… nice… so I stayed late and paid for each of my shifts from each shift to stay and advise me on what makes the store run from a schedule/partner POV. I worked that first week, open to close (4:15am to 10:30pm) So, yes… the first part was for me to bring the schedules up to standard… 2 weeks posted at a minimum. I knew there would be changes, but I wanted to do my part first so I could ask others to do their part. I’ll skip the many schedule interactions as they don’t add to the story
Customer Service:
The store had Customer Snapshot scores in the 60%-70% range, so I knew this was low hanging fruit for turning other things around. It was clear that we needed a store meeting. Now there was no assistant manager at this 7-day a week store and no RMT, so I used my shift sups to help me promote the idea that we would get 4 partners from another store to work our close so we could have a “team dinner”… i.e. a cleverly disguised team meeting. So… I took them to dinner. And I poured my heart into them... i.e., I tried to scare the crap out of them.
The Speech:
“Thanks for coming everyone… I feel like I need to be frank with you all. Starbucks corporate called me today to say the store is in danger of being closed if we don’t get a handle on our store operations and turn things around. Our comps are in the negative, customer comments are pathetic and Snapshot scores are really weak.
Some partners cried, others rose their hands, some sat in silence.
Partner 1: Holy crap! Are we gonna be out on the street?
Pat Nerr: I’m afraid that’s the bad news… the good news is that we can fix it… and I know how.
Partner 2: How?? We have the crappiest Snapshots, the store is a mess, partners are late for shifts… no wonder they’re gonna close us.
Pat Nerr: First, we all have to agree to care that this place is more than just a job. Second, we have to fix our customer service. Third, we have to fix the quality of our drinks and presentation. The rest of it will fix itself and you’re gonna have to trust me on this. Now, I’d like to keep my job as I have almost 8 years invested at this company, so here’s how important it is to me…
Pat Nerr: I’m going to pledge my bonus as the carrot to make you guys care. I’m going to pledge you my knowledge of how to run the best store we can. I’m going to pledge you that I care… about all of it. You, the store, the customers. I’m counting on you to make it all happen… and I’m going to be here the whole time.
Partner 3: So how much money are we talking here?
Pat Nerr: OK… First I want to say that I’ll use whatever bonus I make to throw you a party. We’ll have roughly $1,700 to spend on one night of fun. I’ll even let you decide how and where we spend it.
What Next?:
Well, certainly this stirred up some excitement. But I knew there was much to do and these folks needed direction. So we posted the goals in the back room… prominently. Just 3…
1. Get 3 Customer Snapshots over 95%...
2. Enthusiastically Satisfy Every Customer… Every Time…
3. Comp 10% for one entire quarter
All sorts of things happened. It might help to tell you that the generational makeup of the store looked like this… 78% age 16-19, 20% age 20-25, 10% age 26-45 and 2% age 45+. You can imagine the dynamic… but it’s the cards I was dealt. For instance, we had issues with folks being “ill/hungover” for work on Saturdays… so that meant tardiness or “no shows”. We fixed that by having a family meeting that included parents of these kids. Most if not all had no idea that underage drinking was preventing their kids from making it to work on Saturday. Surprisingly, all of the parents then became Saturday morning customers. But the Saturday woes didn’t end there. It was so busy from open till close that partners hated working Saturdays. So, I worked them…
What did I learn? I learned that we we’re physically understaffed. We took a risk and just scheduled 2 extra partners… one to work a register and drive transactions and the other as a bar support person. Not to stop there, I brought in my griddle and made folks either pancakes or grilled sandwiches to feed them… we all voted an MVP every Saturday. The MVP got to leave 15 minutes early or choose to give it to someone else. These things became legendary. They also made working Saturday an asset and not a liability.
I remember one particular Saturday when double-barring with a 16 year-old kid named Kevin.
Kevin: How the heck do I “enthusiastically satisfy” people while I’m slammed on the bar?
Pat Nerr: Well, Kevin, I’m not gonna lie buddy… it’s hard. I can show you what I do if you want…
Kevin: Sure…
Pat Nerr: OK… when you lid every hot beverage, line up the drink hole with the logo on the cup and hand the drink out with the logo facing out. Then you watch their face… they’ll hone in on that logo every time. That’s when you say, “Hey, have a great day!” It’s basic branding… you make sure that every customer attaches that logo with the feeling they get by being told to have a great day. Make sure that cup is pristine too.
15 minutes later…
Kevin: Oh my god. That totally works! Who taught you all this stuff?
Pat Nerr: I learned it here man… and the great part is, you can use it on your next job and so on. It’s a powerful tool, so never forget it.
So, Des… I hope I’ve convinced you that it can be done. You can make partners care. First, you have to care… you have to care so much that you’re willing to do just about anything to achieve the goal… whatever that is for your team.
What happened to that store? Well, they made the goal… no joke. Three 100% Snapshots, Store comps 12.4% and I decided to give them the 3rd because it was a filler goal anyway… and there’s power in doing things in 3’s. It didn’t stop either after the quarter… they kept going. We made highest profit percentage in the company that year…
You can take what you want from this story… there’s lots in it. Provide your people carrots that matter... Power in numbers... play to your strengths... fulfill your employees basics needs first... whatever. If you try something, watch it work... if it doesn't, shoot it and try something else. When it does work, cherish it... cuz it can go away as quickly as it came. Oh yeah... and nothing lasts forever.
We’ll see you tomorrow for your usual…
Pat Nerr…
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